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Judicial philosophy

Anthony Kennedy was appointed by a Republican president, of course, but his jurisprudence is about as libertarian as we've had on the Court since before the New Deal.[3][4]

”

Shapiro has also said:

“

He's a strong federalist who believes in the inherent dignity of the individual -- and that constitutional structures protect that personal liberty.[3][4]

”

Early life and education

Justice Kennedy grew up in Sacramento, California. He served as a page in the California State Senate when he was young. Kennedy graduated from C. K. McClatchy High School in 1954 and went on to earn his B.A. in political science from Stanford University in 1958. He spent his senior year at the London School of Economics. He earned his bachelor of laws from Harvard Law School, graduating cum laude in 1961.[5][1]

Professional career

Kennedy was engaged in the private practice of law in San Francisco from 1961 to 1963. Following his father's death, he took over his father's practice in Sacramento. From 1965 through 1988, Kennedy was a professor of constitutional law at the McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific. During Kennedy's time as a law professor and attorney, he assisted then-California Governor Ronald Reagan with drafting a state tax proposal.[5]

Kennedy has served in numerous positions during his career, including in the California Army National Guard in 1961 and on the board of the Federal Judicial Center from 1987 to 1988. He also served on two committees of the Judicial Conference of the United States: the Advisory Panel on Financial Disclosure Reports and Judicial Activities (subsequently renamed the Advisory Committee on Codes of Conduct) from 1979 to 1987 and the Committee on Pacific Territories from 1979 to 1990. Kennedy also chaired the latter committee from 1982 to 1990.

Supreme Court of the United States

Opinions by year

Below is a table of the number of opinions, concurrences, dissents and splits (concur in part, dissent in part) that Anthony Kennedy has issued since joining the Supreme Court according to the data on Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute.[6]

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Opinions

7

15

12

11

9

12

8

12

8

9

9

8

11

9

8

7

8

8

9

7

7

7

9

11

0

0

Concurrences

4

10

11

7

10

8

14

5

5

1

9

5

5

5

7

6

8

4

8

5

1

5

6

3

0

0

Dissents

3

4

8

7

5

4

1

1

3

2

3

5

4

1

3

5

6

5

3

0

3

1

4

3

0

0

Concur in part, Dissent in part

0

1

1

2

0

2

0

0

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

3

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

0

0

0

Totals

14

30

32

27

24

26

23

18

18

12

22

18

20

15

18

21

22

17

20

12

12

14

19

17

0

0

Notable cases

Justice Kennedy was the majority opinion writer in the case involving the non-profit group Citizens United and the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). Citizens United brought the original case against the FEC to allow the release of Hillary: The Movie to video-on-demand services. Citizens United claimed that it was important to protect corporate political speech in the same way that media outlets are protected. They also argued that they did not need to disclose who was funding political ads.

The FEC claimed that the practice would lead to a quid pro quo scenario and that corporations were not "natural persons" that should receive free speech protection. Justice Kennedy addressed the quid pro quo argument in his ruling:

“

Limits on independent expenditures, such as 441b, have a chilling effect extending well beyond the Government's interest in preventing quid pro quo corruption. The anticorruption interest is not sufficient to displace the speech here in question. Indeed, 26 States do not restrict independent expenditures by for-profit corporations. The Government does not claim that these expenditures have corrupted the political process in those States.[7][4]

”

The opinion also found that the "natural persons" argument was flawed, in that there is no way to define when someone crosses over from being a person to a corporation. Finally, Kennedy wrote that organizations must continue to disclose who they are if they are releasing political information.

“

The First Amendment protects political speech; and disclosure permits citizens and shareholders to react to the speech of the corporate entities in a proper way. This transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages.[7][4]

Justice Kennedy wrote the opinion for the 2003 case of Lawrence v. Texas, a case where two men were charged with sodomy for having consensual same-sex intercourse. Kennedy found the statute involved in the arrest of the men to be unfairly applied to same-sex couples. He pointed to cases wherein other states have anti-sodomy laws that show no signs of being enforced on consenting adults in private. He wrote:

“

The 25 States with law prohibiting the relevant conduct referenced in the Bowers decision are reduced now to 13, of which 4 enforce their laws only against homosexual conduct. In those States where sodomy is still proscribed, whether for same-sex or heterosexual conduct, there is a pattern of nonenforcement with respect to consenting adults acting in private.[8][4]

”

Kennedy closed his opinion noting that the State has no justifiable interest in the intrusion on private activities of two consenting adults.[8]

Nomination and confirmation

While vetting Kennedy for potential nomination, some of Reagan's Justice Department lawyers said that Kennedy was too eager to inject the courts into disputes that many conservatives would rather leave to legislatures and to identify rights not expressly written in the Constitution. Kennedy's stance favoring privacy rights also drew criticism. Kennedy cited Roe v. Wade and other privacy rights cases favorably, which one attorney called, "really very distressing."[11]

In one of his pre-SCOTUS opinions, Kennedy criticized (in dissent) the police for bribing a child into showing them where the child's mother hid her heroin. Kennedy wrote that, "indifference to personal liberty is but the precursor of the state's hostility to it."[12] Reagan's lawyers criticized Kennedy for citing an Amnesty International report to bolster his views in that case.

Kennedy endorsed Griswold v. Connecticut (concerning due process) as well as the right to privacy, calling it, "a zone of liberty, a zone of protection, a line that's drawn where the individual can tell the Government, 'Beyond this line you may not go.'"[13] These views garnered Kennedy more bipartisan support than either Bork or Ginsburg, and he was ultimately confirmed by the Senate on a vote of 97 to 0.

Oath of office

Justice Kennedy took the Constitutional and Judicial oaths of office on February 18, 1988. Chief Justice William Rehnquist administered the oaths. Kennedy again received the Judicial Oath from the chief justice following the ceremony in the Justices' Conference Room during a special sitting of the Court.[14]

Ninth Circuit

Map of the Ninth Circuit. Click on a district to find out more about it.

Interests

At the dedication of the Anthony M. Kennedy Library and Learning Center, Justice Kennedy prepared and presented a reading list titled "Understanding Freedom’s Heritage: How to Keep and Defend Liberty." The list is directed at youths and contains speeches, films and literature. The full list can be found here.